Small Bedroom with Sketch Up for review

Hi everybody.... Long time lurker around here. I soak this site up quite regularly. Its exciting to finally be posting something of my own. I have a spare bedroom I'd like to tighten up as a mix suite. Dimensions are 126" Long x 112.5 wide x 96" high. The room is carpeted with a relatively thick pile carpet and pad. The bedroom is on the second floor of the house I own. Isolation isn't a big issue, not that I would do anything about it. The house is a split level, so one wall is to the outside, to the right is a bedroom, to the left is the attic area of the split level below, and behind me is the hall leading to the other 3 bedrooms. Walls are typical wall board over 2x4 studs. House was built in the 60's. I don't plan on mixing at loud levels, and I don't do tracking. This is a mixing only suite. Currently, the monitors are Hafler M5's. I have a Yamaha Sub as well to fill out the bottom, but really haven't tied it in because it just lights the room up right now and makes more problems than it cures. Ultimately, i can see myself going with a Blue Sky Media Desk or Pro Desk, depending on how the side work flows. Basically, I'm a hobbyist doing some side work for a few bucks here and there. I do primarily short form video work, though some longer form doc type stuff on occasion. Looking to get the bottom end evened out a bit, and a general overall tightening up of the space. I am a ProTools guy with an Mbox and Command 8. I run this on an Intel Macbook, and I have a MAudio keyboard controller for some sound design stuff. If you look at the sketch up drawing, you'll see the room enters on the short wall with an inward swinging door. Immediately to the left of the entry (as you walk in) is a largish closet that I plan on keeping packed up with absorbtive type stuff (my wife has a tremendous collection of clothing that is literally packed in there now!) and hang a heavy fabric curtain inside of the frame. I'm afraid this will have to do because she's, "giving up the room for my shenanigans, but not the closet!". hehe. Looking to the front of the room you see an off center window. This is the wall I plan to have the mixing station against. You can see in the drawing I've done corner traps in the two corners nearest the mixing station (superchunk method corner traps) and the same type of trap in the wall/ceiling corners along the two long walls to the left and right of the mix position. If I can get both the corner and ceiling traps in and secure without covering them, I will see if the room needs to have the traps covered with plastic dropcloth (as per the BBC test results mentioned on the superchunk sticky page) to keep the high end intact. If not, I'll wing it and maybe cover the ceilings with plastic but not the corners. In addition, I have a 2 foot wide by 7 foot or so 2" panel that I would construct for mounting on the side walls at ear level (in the 3' to 5' height area of the wall). I may do a hanging cloud above the mix position based on 2" framed compressed fiberglass (leaving the back open), but that's a wait and see. If it needs it, that will be phase II. Budget and permanence of the work are an issue, so I can't build any walls, or do any other type of serious construction. I'm saving that type of stuff for my unfinished basement when I do a combo theater room/mix suite. I need to pull this off as cheap as possible, even if it means cutting and compressing non compressed fiberglass to somewhat compromised results. The compressed stuff is hard to find around these parts. I'll have to run the numbers and see if its a tremendous savings to compress my own into the corners using unbacked R-whatever pink glass or go with the 703 type stuff. For the corner and ceiling superchunk traps I thought ripping 2x2 plywood squares diagonally would give me the end caps of the ceiling traps and the top/bottom of the corner traps. Then i would just need to fill them in, perhaps with a piece or two of lathing running end to end to keep the fill up. Maybe on the ceiling I would need a center plywood triangle halfway in the middle to assist in keeping the glass up and securing the fabric. Once the fabric was stapled I planned on framing it out with trim to give it a finished look. What do you guys think? It's ok if I am crazy and if this idea sux. I've been to the drawing board several times over the past 2 years on this room, and this is simply the first drawing I think has enough merit to share. But I could be way off. Thanks so much!!! BTW, I'll be pleased to share my Sketchup file, but I believe it might be too big? 5.5MB. Firefox on a Mac couldn't send it, and I saw 500K max for images. I did a quick search, but didn't find what I was looking for as far as posting the sketchup in a different manner. I also noticed my sig isn'y showing my location.... FYI, this is in the Washington DC suburbs. Thanks!

Aloha and welcome to the forum, Any chance you could email me your skp file? Aloha 8)

kendale wrote:

Aloha and welcome to the forum, Any chance you could email me your skp file? Aloha 8)

I'd love to. Checked your profile and didn't find an address. Where would you like it sent? Thanks for your time and consideration!

Aloha, Check your PM. Aloha 8)

Aloha, Got your file. Thanks! :wink: Would soffiting your monitors be an option for you? Aloha 8)

kendale wrote:

Aloha, Got your file. Thanks! :wink: Would soffiting your monitors be an option for you? Aloha 8)

Nah.... I'd love to. But I'm saving that trump card for when we do the basement. I get where you're coming from.... Would be nice! Thanks!

Aloha, Depending on how much acoustic treatment you require for mixing for video production, and how "live" you prefer your mixing environment, you could start with corner traps (front wall/ceiling), side slat absorbers at mix position, and rear wall absorber units. If you need more control of flutter toward the rear of mix position, you could add the side wall absorbers (no slats). A ceiling absorber (cloud) will help reduce floor to ceiling reflections. - L, R corner traps at wall/ceiling junction - no slats - L, R corner traps at front wall corners - due to room size, no slats - L, R side wall absorbers w/slats units at either side of mix position to direct sound behind you to be absorbed by rear wall absorber - L, R side wall absorbers no slats units to absorb flutter - rear wall absorber units If you are keeping the window, you may want to create a front wall absorber by framing front wall between corner traps and around window, fill with 3" mineral wool @ 2.5 pcf, cover with acoustical cloth (Guilford of Maine - FR701/2100 Series). This will help to reduce reflections off the front wall from reaching mix position. Wall Unit Plans - http://www.johnlsayers.com/HR/index1.htm Acoustic cloth - http://www.silentsource.com/acousticore ... hart1.html Hope this helps, Aloha 8)

kendale wrote:

Aloha, Depending on how much acoustic treatment you require for mixing for video production, and how "live" you prefer your mixing environment, you could start with corner traps (front wall/ceiling), side slat absorbers at mix position, and rear wall absorber units. If you need more control of flutter toward the rear of mix position, you could add the side wall absorbers (no slats). A ceiling absorber (cloud) will help reduce floor to ceiling reflections. - L, R corner traps at wall/ceiling junction - no slats - L, R corner traps at front wall corners - due to room size, no slats - L, R side wall absorbers w/slats units at either side of mix position to direct sound behind you to be absorbed by rear wall absorber - L, R side wall absorbers no slats units to absorb flutter - rear wall absorber units If you are keeping the window, you may want to create a front wall absorber by framing front wall between corner traps and around window, fill with 3" mineral wool @ 2.5 pcf, cover with acoustical cloth (Guilford of Maine - FR701/2100 Series). This will help to reduce reflections off the front wall from reaching mix position. Wall Unit Plans - http://www.johnlsayers.com/HR/index1.htm Acoustic cloth - http://www.silentsource.com/acousticore ... hart1.html Hope this helps, Aloha 8)

Thanks so much. I'll need to adjust a touch for the inwward swinging door, but I think this is a great jumping off point. If you get a chance, would you mind emailing back the modified skp file? I appreciate all of your input. And a big thanks to John nd the rest of this community. Everytime I browse this forum I never fail to learn to something new. Cheers! Cheers!